1942 - 57 headstamps

[donttellthewife]

I picked up 1200 30-06 cases off of Craigslist and all of them look to be once fired. Due to the age of the case 42 thru 57 are they safe to reload, is annealing in order. I'll be loading 42 or so grains of 4895 with a 147 gr bullet shooting thru a M1 or 1919a4.
Do people collect such things, I'd hate to just plink away with them if someone would have more interest in collecting them. Here is how they sorted out.

480 TW 53-52
400 LC 43-57
400 SL 43-58
100 Match 57-90
140 WCC 45
18 DM 42
22 FA 42-49
70 DEM 42-43
91 U 42-43

Thanks, Ron

 

[ReloaderFred]

It's probably pulldown GI, which has been pretty prevalent the last several years. The government released a very large amount of old ammunition, but it had to be broken down into it's component parts, and couldn't be sold as loaded ammunition. Talon, for one, made a business of pulling it down and then reloading it from the surplus components, with non-corrosive primers. There have been several others that have made a good business of pulling the ammunition down and selling the brass, primer and bullets as components.

Because of the age of the brass, there may be some issues of brittleness, but you won't know that until you load some and find out. I've loaded and shot TW-42 brass and found it to be pretty good.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[USSR]

Due to the age of the case 42 thru 57 are they safe to reload, is annealing in order. I'll be loading 42 or so grains of 4895 with a 147 gr bullet shooting thru a M1 or 1919a4.

donttellthewife,

No problem reloading them (not collectible and no annealing necessary), but you want to use alot more than 42 grains of IMR4895 with the 147gr bullet in that brass. Between 47.0gr and 48.0gr of IMR4895 is a more appropriate load.

Don

 

[ReloaderFred]

I also meant to comment on the 42 grains of IMR 4895, but forgot. I use 42 grains and the 147 grain or 150 grain bullet in my standard .308 load for my M1A's, which is pretty accurate. You'll need a little heavier load to reliably function the Garand.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[donttellthewife]

Thanks for the heads up on the powder load, I've loaded about 3000 308s in the last month and have'nt got that load out of my head. I'll be loading these in a couple weeks after I set up a dillon power trimmer to a 650 press. Which brings me to my next question, after trimming is it OK to load with out deburing and chamfering. It will be so nice not to have to hand trim any more and if the power trimmer does'nt leave much on the case mouth it would seem OK
Thanks , Ron

 

[ReloaderFred]

I use the Dillon power case trimmer and all I do is chamfer the inside of the case mouth after trimming. It makes the bullet seating much smoother and easier. I set up an arrangement where I can chamfer about 1,200 or so cases an hour, so it goes pretty quickly.

Fred

 

[donttellthewife]

I was trying to come up with a way chamfer on one of the empty positions on the tool head. If could use a powder die with a spinning chamfer tool inside the top part of it, adjusted either by a set location or some kind of spring set up. I thought about using a cordless screw driver to do the spinning if I could mount it somehow. Maybe I should do this off the press, but as long as I am pulling the handle and indexing it would be cool to do one more step on the press.
Here is the way that I've been prossesing rifle cases so far
1. inspect
2. tumble
3. inspect
4. lube
5. full length size/decap
6. trim to length
7. debur/chamfer
8. clean cases
9. load as normal without the sizing die

I believe this is considered the interupted method when using the dillon 650. Any advice about my idea for chamfering or deburring on the press.
Thanks Ron

 

[USSR]

donttellthewife,

I'm familiar with the Dillon power trimmer, but it's not a good idea to trim a case without chamfering the neck. If these cases are once-fired, chances are they will not need to be trimmed anyways.

Don

 

[Ares45]

IIRC the cases could date back to days of corrosive priming compounds (especially Mil brass, the gov't didn't abandon corrosive primers until several years after commercial manufacturers). The corrosive salts could have weakened the brass substantially. You could run the salt/water test as described in Speer #13. At a bare minumum you should wash them real good in warm soapy water. The salts are water soluble, oil based or other cleaning methods won't be effective.

Again, WAG, but it could be relevent.